ul. Minot fund. 1769-77 79, 80-82,84) CASSELL, PETTER, & GALPIN'S NEW BOOKS. GENERAL GARIBALDI'S NEW WORK. The forthcoming Work from the pen of General Garibaldi has been translated under the supervision of a distinguished English littérateur, and will be published by Messrs. CASSELL, PETTER, and GALPIN, under the title of "THE RULE OF THE MONK; OR, ROME IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY." It will contain a vivid portraiture of the wrongs and evils of Papal misrule in Rome; together with a Narrative of Personal Experiences and Actual Adventures, thrown into the form of a Stirring Story. The patriot of Caprera is himself a personage in the novel. [In the Press. THE WORLD OF THE SEA. Translated from the French of ALFRED FRedol, by the Rev. H. M. HART. Demy 8vo, with Coloured and Tinted Plates, and numerous Wood Engravings, best cloth, lettered, 215. ÆSOP'S FABLES. A New and Carefully Revised Version. By J. B. RUNdell. Profusely Illustrated with Original Designs by ERNEST GRISET. One handsome 4to vol., cloth extra, gilt edges, 215. "It is rare that text and illustrator are so well matched as in this work. M. Griset is a master in treating animal character." -Athenæum, Dec. 4th. CASSELL'S BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. With full-page Portraits of Eminent Men. Complete in one vol. imp. 8vo, pp. 1,152, cloth lettered, 215. A HANDY-BOOK OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM. With upwards of 150 Illustrations of the most Interesting Subjects, and full Historical and Descriptive letterpress, by T. NICHOLS, a Senior Assistant in the Principal Librarian's Office of the British Museum, Author of "The Handbook for Readers." Demy 8vo, about 400 pages, cloth lettered, 215. THE POETS OF GREECE. BY EDWIN ARNOLD, M.A., Author of "Griselda, and other Poems," &c. Demy 8vo, cloth lettered, 10s. 6d. ONE HUNDRED OF THE BEST DRAWINGS OF GEORGE HOUSMAN THOMAS. Being a series of carefully-printed Wood Engravings, from Designs by Mr. THOMAS, with descriptive letterpress. Handsome 4to vol., cloth gilt, 215. THE SCENERY OF GREECE. By W. LINTON. 50 exquisitely beautiful full page Steel Engravings, with descriptive letterpress. 4to vol., extra cloth gilt, 425. "There is so much in Hellas that must ever charm not only the classical scholar but the educated tourist that we are prepared to give a somewhat more than ordinary welcome to a book which shall introduce to us Greece as it is, and at the same time tell us something about Greece as it was in its palmy days of Athenian supremacy. This is the object, apparently, which Mr. W. Linton has had in view in publishing as a Christmas gift-book his 'Scenery of Greece and its Islands." Times, Dec. 3rd. THE ADVENTURES OF MUNCHAUSEN. Illustrated by GUSTAVE DORÉ. Cheap Edition, 4to, 10s. 6d. THE WORLD OF WONDERS. 10s. 6d. Complete Volume. Complete Volume. Cloth, 7s. 6d.; full gilt, "A wonderful book, truly. A capital collection of oddities and wonders of every kind and sort, forming a volume of most amusing reading, and useful as well as interesting."-Literary Churchman. A Series of 22 Steel THORWALDSEN'S TRIUMPH OF ALEXANDER. THE BOOK OF HISTORICAL COSTUMES. Drawn from the best Specimens and most Authentic Documents of each period. With 96 full-page Coloured Engravings. Cloth, gilt edges, 50s. THE SCHILLER GALLERY. A Series of exquisite Photographs from KAULBACH'S Paintings of Scenery from Schiller. Cloth lettered, 5 5s. ILLUSTRATED TRAVELS. A Record of Discovery, Geography, and Adventure. Edited by H. W. BATES, Assistant Secretary of the Royal Geographical Society, and profusely Illustrated by the best Artists of the day, from drawings made on the spot. Royal 4to, cloth, lettered, 15s. Extra cloth, full gilt, gilt edges, 18s. CASSELL, PETTER, & GALPIN, Ludgate Hill, London; and 596, Broadway, New York. NOTHER CHRISTMAS BOOKSELLER enables us to take our Illustrations, exhibit a marked declension much to be regretted. To what cause may this declension in the art of Wood-Engraving be attributed? Probably to the great demand for Woodcuts of a second or third rate character for use in picture newspapers, magazines, and cheap books-woodcuts which, like many of the articles they are assumed to illustrate, are seldom looked at or read a second time by the same person-ephemeral art to illustrate ephemeral litera. ture. Excuse may readily be found for artists who undertake this description of work. It pays! Illustrations bargained for by the square inch can hardly be the result of much conscientious labour. Again, nearly all the great Standard Works having been issued with illustrations, few works of consequence remain upon which publishers care to invest large sums of money; consequently, books of merely temporary interest have taken their places, and the demand for high-class Art has diminished. It is, however, a matter of surprise and regret that artists should so readily have accepted mediocrity as their standard. The dearth of books to illustrate, and the difficulty of illustrating them satisfactorily, have driven publishers to foreign sources for engravings and books. In some instances they adopt both; in others, merely taking the woodcuts, they employ English writers to supply the text. This, in itself, is not objectionable. Foreign books thus introduced are generally of a high character, written by men of eminence in their several walks of literature, and frequently illustrated in a style our draughtsmen and engravers would do well to emulate. In glancing through THE CHRISTMAS BOOKSELLER, readers will have no difficulty in distinguishing the exotic from the indigenous French and German engravers, as a rule, eschewing the "high art" style endorsed by many eminent names in this country. Colour-printing, as an art, has remained almost stationary; although from abroad we have had some satisfactory specimens. Here, it has been most successful in the production of Maps and of Children's Toy Books-works of enormous demand. Of Toy Books especially it is gratifying to see that editions have been printed with French, German, Dutch, and Russian texts; and it is not improbable that before long even young Orientals will be in possession of "Jack and the Bean-Stalk" and of "Cinderella their native tongues. In Photography, a further improvement has taken place. Pictures printed by the Carbon process are now as firmly fixed upon the paper as are engravings printed in the ordinary manner. MESSRS. BELL AND DALDY'S FINE ART PUBLICATIONS. MESSRS. BELL and DALDY seem resolved to retain the high position they have earned as art publishers. They have again this season issued a series of works, each of which is remarkable for some special excellence. The first in point of importance is undoubtedly that entitled "Turner's Celebrated Landscapes," which consist of sixteen of the artist's most celebrated works reproduced in permanent tint by the autotype process. On the selection that has been made, and on the manner in which the pictures have been reproduced, the publishers have to be congratulated. Characteristic specimens of each of the three periods into which critics have divided the life of Turner are given, so that with the aid of the "Memoir" and descriptive letterpress by Mr. Cosmo Monkhouse, we have in one volume a complete epitome of our great artist's works, and a commentary that will greatly aid the reader to enjoy them. Turner was born in 1775, and had not developed his powers till the year 1800. Then commenced what Mr. Ruskin calls the period of his first style-a style distinguished by boldness of handling, generally gloomy tendency of mind, subdued colour, and perpetual reference to precedent in composition. This phase of his art culminated, in 1815, in two pictures which the painter loved so dearly that in his later years he refused fabulous prices for them. These are here given, and are known wherever Turner's name is known, as "Crossing the Brook," and "Dido building Carthage." The one is considered to be the crowning, most perfect work of his first style of subdued tones, as the other is the first prophecy of his second, in which "darkness was to give place to light, vapours to the sun, patient labour to exultant mastery, the grey morning to the golden day." Neither of these requires to be described. The one is an idealisation of English scenery; the other, conceived in a widely different spirit, is a glorious dream, a pompous *Turner's Celebrated Landscapes. Sixteen of the most important works of J. M. W. Turner, R.A., reproduced from the large engravings in permanent tint by the autotype process. Of and stately artistic castle in the Eastern air. 66 SIR GEORGE HARVEY.* VERY appropriately, in conjunction with the issue of a selected series of the landscapes of our great English painter, we are presented with a group of one-and-twenty pictures after one who, officially, at least, may be considered as the representative of Scottish art. In 1826, when the Scottish artists determined to establish at Edinburgh an academy modelled after our own, George Harvey, then only twenty years of age, was invited to join as an associate. He joined; gradually won his way in the esteem of connoisseurs and the public; and finally was elected president of the Royal Scottish Academy --a position he still occupies. Sir George has chiefly devoted himself to illustrate the history of his own country, more especially the eventful incidents in the lives of the Covenanters. Domestic subjects, however, and episodes that have no relation to his favourite theme, have supplied him with work for his pencil. Sir George is well represented in the several particulars. The greater portion of his works appeal forcibly to the sympathies of a large class, and the popularity they have for this reason achieved has been enhanced by the fact that they have had the honour of being well engraved. Thus, "The Covenanters' Baptism," in which the numerous figures are thrown out in fine relief by a background of rock and hill;" "Covenanters Preaching," his first picture illustrative of the Covenanting times, and that which established his reputation as an historical painter; "Drumclog," a representation of the only fight in which the Covenanters were successful in a contest with the Royal forces-are the three pictures which appeal to the national and patriotic feelings of Scotland. Again, "The Curlers," in which the national game, with the winter landscape, is rendered with much spirit and truthfulness, and the expression of motion is distinctly given; "Examination of a Village School," a picture which represents a common incident with remarkable freshness; "A Highland Funeral," an impressive scene, forcibly representing its subject; "A Shule Skailin'," a spirited and humorous incident, well rendered; "Village Bowlers," a companion picture to "The Curlers," wherein, instead of the ice-bound loch, we have a soft and rich summer eve; and "Sabbath in the Glen," a picture which combines history, landscape, and portraitureequally commend themselves to Scotsmen. There remain others to be enumerated which appeal to a wider audience. "Auld Lang Syne," a series of four pictures illustrating Burns's well known and popular national song, is an exquisite embodiment of the sentiment. "Quitting the Manse," which commemorates, with much feeling, an incident in the disruption of the Scottish Church in 1843, is more general in the interest it is capable of inspiring, and, as now produced, will attract a larger number of admirers. In "First Reading of the Bible in the Crypt of Old St. Paul's ;' "Shakspeare before Sir Thomas Lucy on a Charge of Deer-stealing," a pictorial rendering of a story now all but discredited; "The Castaway," and "An Incident in the Life of Napoleon," the artist has left his usual track and addressed a wider circle. In each of these pictures he has been less successful than in those which have Scottish scenery, Scottish incidents, and Scottish character for their subject. The truth is, the painter is essentially Scotch, and he is more happy in depicting Scotch life and manners than in portraying themes which strike the universal heart by reason of their beauty or grandeur. He goes the whole round of life and represents it; but it is Scotch life. He A Selection from the Works of Sir George Harvey, P.R.S.A. With Descriptions by the Rev. A. L. Simpson, F.S.A., Scotland. influences us by his pathos; but the majority of mankind are not amenable to the pathos. He teaches us, not beauty for its own sake-often not beauty at all-but moral lessons which appeal to the heart, and not to our sense of beauty. He is, nevertheless, a representative man, and his works are representative works, and as such he and they derive importance. MOUNTAIN, LOCH, AND GLEN.* THE praise awarded by press and public to the first edition of "Mountain, Loch, and Glen" has doubtless had the effect of inducing the publishers to give us a second edition of this splendid work, modified in size and in price. Mr. Helps, in a brief preface, truly says, that in the British Isles there is no aspect of scenery which has not its counterpart. They possess every variety of landscape, and in the quality of the picturesque there is no country to be compared with them. Of this the present volume furnishes abundant evidence. Mountains, rivers, lakes, and plains are here represented, which, if not equal in the quality of size to those of other countries, in beauty of form and variety in outline are unsurpassed. There are extraneous circumstances, too, which give additional interest to the work. If the Queen appears in person among us, crowds exhibit their interest in Her Majesty by presenting themselves before her in her progress; and when our beloved Sovereign described her wanderings in the Highlands, a whole nation read the diary in which she recorded her experiences. To these, then, "Mountain, Loch, and Glen" will give delight by placing before them the very scenes described by the royal pen. It has, moreover, the advantage of being a splendid collection of views of natural scenery, and, as a work of art, is one of very exceptional excellence. The views themselves, and the admirable essay of Dr. Macleod on "The Characteristics of Highland | Scenery," and the descriptions of the views taken from Her Majesty's work, "Our Life in the Highlands," combine to make the work of national interest. As we said in our last CHRISTMAS BOOKSELLER, the work gives us "not only the most trustworthy illustration of the places represented, but pictures such as cannot fail to please the most artistic eye, and be a joy in the memory of the most uninstructed amateur." THE SHEEPSHANKS GALLERY.† MR. SHEEPSHANKS presented to the nation his valuable collection of pictures and drawings-the works of British artists-with a view to the formation of a national collection of British art; and the series of works included is truly such as to make it well suited to the purpose. We have specimens of every style of British art-the historical, the landscape, the domestic, the marine; we have the purely imaginative-the highest expression of beauty and fancy-and the purely real, in which accuracy of imitation is chiefly aimed at ; and between these classes we have a wide range of subjects, each of which has its representative. Turner, who is worthily represented by his "Vessel in Distress off Yarmouth" and "Line Fishing off Hastings; "Constable, Collins, Callcott, Mulready, Leslie, whose Autolycus" and * Mountain, Loch, and Glen, illustrating "Our Life in the Highlands," from Paintings executed expressly for this work by Joseph Adam. With an Essay on the Charac teristics of Scottish Scenery, by the Rev. Norman Macleod, D.D., one of Her Majesty's Chaplains. Second edition, revised. The Sheepshanks Gallery: A Series of Twenty Pictures from this celebrated Collection, reproduced in permanent tint by the autotype process. With an Introduction on OilPainting in England, by Richard Redgrave, R.A., and Biographical Notices of the Painters. "Florizel and Perdita" are given; D. Roberts, Stanfield, Linnell, Lee, Webster, Redgrave, Creswick, Cope, and Horsley have each one or more characteristic specimens of his manner. Apart from the pleasure to be derived from the display of beauty and imagination they possess, these pictures are judiciously selected to display the admirable execution of the British school and the individuality of the several painters. Not one of the twenty but has a character, and is illustrative of British feelings and affections, or of the beautiful nature of which we desire to be reminded in moments of rest. The whole of them have been happily conceived and treated by the artists, and are now so beautifully reproduced by the autotype process that, save in the matter of colour, to the cultivated and imaginative mind they will produce the same delights as the originals. The biographical notices of the several painters, and the introduction by Mr. Redgrave on oil-painting in England, will enable those who are ignorant of the subject to make themselves thoroughly acquainted with the origin, progress, and present condition of art in England. THE SKETCH BOOK.* IN addition to the works specially produced as illustrative of art, we have also from Messrs. Bell and Daldy a new edition of Washington Irving's charming "Sketch Book." Of the "Sketch Book" itself, which comprises the delightful sketches entitled "Rip Van Winkle," "The Stage-Coach," "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow," "Little Britain," "Stratford-on-Avon," &c., it would be superfluous to speak. The edition has merits beyond its literary merits. It is excellently printed, and contains, in addition to the portrait of Irving on steel, one hundred and twenty illus trations on wood, from original designs. Among these there is great variety, not only in their value as designs, but in the manner of their execution. The Sketch Book, containing "The Author's Account of Himself," "The Story of Rip Van Winkle," "The Broken Heart," "A Royal Poet," "The Spectre Bridegroom," "The Stage-Coach," "London Antiques," "Little Britain, ," "Stratford-on-Avon," "Traits of Indian Character," "The Pride of the Village," "The Angler," and “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow." By Washington Irving. Illus trated with One Hundred and Twenty Engravings on Wood, from original designs. MR. PROVOST'S PHOTOGRAPHIC VOLUMES. MR. A. W. BENNETT, who several months ago retired from publishing, has found a worthy successor in the spécialité of his business in the person of Mr. Provost, from whom we have received DOVER,* the chief threshold of our kingdom, is a spot of interest to all Englishmen. It abounds in historical associations. The white cliffs, visible at times to our French neighbours across the Channel, have seen strange sights. Beneath them have landed colonies of Gauls; Roman soldiers have beheld them glisten in the sun; Saxons, Danes, and Normans have sailed beneath their shadows; illustrious men and women-the emperors, kings, statesmen, soldiers, and élite of all lands-have, for centuries, made them the terminus of their approach to our shores. Such a place as this has national interest, and all that concerns it appeals to the national feeling. The little book, therefore, whose title we have given, may be expected to have a wider circulation than could be obtained by a volume devoted to a description of most other towns on our coast. The author does not profess to furnish a guide-book, or a history of Dover-there are several works, archæological and popular, to which the reader is referred who is desirous of acquainting himself with an exhaustive account of the town; his aim has been simply to describe the series of photographs by which the book is illustrated. These consist of a dozen views, so judiciously chosen that a stranger to Dover is able to obtain from them a pretty just estimate of the town, its position, size, buildings, and surroundings. First, we have a general view of the town, in which the photographer has been very happy. This is followed by the Castle-one of the strongest fortresses in the kingdom; by that strange octagonal tower named the Pharos, an interesting relic of Roman times; by several town and harbour views; and, finally, by "Shakespeare's Cliff," standing erect amidst the objects of interest in the immediate neighbour. hood. The visitor to Dover will find the volume a pleasant handbook. GIBRALTAR.*-Across the sea, beyond the Bay of Biscay, at the entrance to the Mediterranean, is the famous threshold to another kingdom. That kingdom is not ours; but Englishmen hold the key in possessing Gibraltar. This fortress-the very name of which is calculated to arouse a feeling of pride in the breast of every intelligent Briton-is thoroughly described and illustrated, and its history treated, in "A History of Gibraltar and its Sieges." From Phoenician times, when the first voyagers crept timidly out of the Great Sea, past its base, into that Dark Ocean which their imagination filled with terror, down to that October day when the "Victory," having on board the body of Horatio, Lord Nelson, arrived in the Bay, the whole series of stirring events relative to the place has been recorded. The author, moreover, goes beyond his theme proper, and follows the fortunes of the men whose deeds have connected them with "the Rock," so that in his pages we have a history of this possession of the British Crown from its first emerg. ence out of the realms of mythology to our own day. In the course of fifteen chapters the author describes the place in early times, giving an account of its first inhabitants, its condition under the successive rule of the Carthaginians, the Romans, and the Visigoths; and, finally, sketches for us the romantic history of its conquest by the Moors, and the legends relating to King Roderick. He then, in the remainder and greater portion of the volume, gives the history of the fourteen sieges to which the place has been subjected. The vicissitudinous fortunes of "the Rock" have been, throughout the narrative, carefully traced and related, and especial attention has been given to its history from the time when, in 1704, it was cap tured by the English, till the great and heroic siege" under Elliot, which terminated in 1784. Since the last-named date we have held the place in peace, and its history for the present ends. The volume is profusely illustrated. A map and numerous photographs serve to enable the reader to follow with interest the narrative, and to form a correct idea of the aspect of one of the most A History of Gibraltar and its Sieges. With Photographic Illustrations by J. H. Mann. |